Luminescent and thermo-optical properties of Nd3+-doped yttrium aluminoborate laser glasses

Abstract

In this work we performed a thorough spectroscopic and thermo-optical investigation of yttrium aluminoborate glasses doped with neodymium ions. A set of samples, prepared by the conventional melt-quenching technique and with Nd2O3 concentrations varying from 0.1 to 0.75 mol %, were characterized by ground state absorption, photoluminescence, excited state lifetime measurements, and thermal lens technique. For the neodymium emission at 1064 nm (F43/2→I411/2 transition), no significant luminescence concentration quenching was observed and the experimental lifetime values ranged around 70 μs. The obtained values of thermal conductivity and diffusivity of approximately 10.3×10−3 W/cm K and 4.0×10−3 cm2/s, respectively, are comparable to those of commercial laser glasses. Moreover, the fluorescence quantum efficiency of the glasses, calculated using the Judd–Ofelt formalism and luminescence decay, lies in the range from 0.28 to 0.32, larger than the typical values obtained for Nd3+ doped YAl3(BO3)4 crystals.